James (Lycan Mating Games Book 2), page 11
The words filled my mind, and I was thrilled at the pride and confidence that he had in me. James had never once made me feel like I was lesser or in need of protection because I was a woman.
In fact, he told me time and again that I was the best fighter he had ever met. Considering we grew up learning every fighting technique possible, I knew he was sincere.
Same, James. You and me, together for always.
His eyes glowed for a moment. You and me, together for always.
Jessie stopped the time freeze, and we all felt a jolt. It felt like what I guessed it would feel like having a ghost walk across your grave. I had goosebumps up my arms, and every hair on my body stood up.
The music started blasting, the sounds of sex and talking resumed.
“What?” A patron called out.
Another yelled, “What happened to the show?”
Several others wrinkled their brows in confusion.
“They finished,” James said calmly. “That disappearance at the end was terrific. I did not see it coming!”
“Neither did I,” another patron added. “One moment they were there and the next they were gone.”
There was a low murmur through the crowd as they spoke about the incredible special effects.
I knew that more questions would be coming. We couldn’t serve them anything with every bottle smashed to pieces. Going over to the wall, I grabbed the lever to the fire alarm and pulled it. The sirens and flashing lights began immediately, and the club began to empty.
“The fire department is on its way.” James grabbed the phone in the bar. “I am going to call them and let them know the alarm malfunctioned. You go and see how the interrogation is going.”
I ran up the stairs and wrenched the observation room door open. April, Mike, and Clarence turned and motioned for me to enter.
“What’s going on?” I whispered.
There was a wall of screens depicting every inch of the club. There were three cameras in the room where Dr. Rinwald was being held. He was glaring at Shelley and Caleb.
“He hasn’t spoken,” April whispered.
Caleb got in his face, “Look, we know who you are. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t end your miserable life right now.”
Caleb rammed his fist into the doctor's face, catching his chin and causing his head to jerk back.
“Stupid boy, you have no idea who you are striking. I am not going to talk to you,” Dr. Rinwald said. “I will speak to my stepson.”
I glanced over at Mike who was standing in a tense silence glaring at the screen.
“Maybe you should go down there.” April slipped her hand into his, and he broke his gaze to look down at her.
“I don’t know if I am ready to face that bastard.” Mike let out an impatient puff of air. “He put me through hell. I can’t say he was an abusive husband to my mother, but he was never there for her. There is something wrong with him. It’s like he has no conscience.”
Clarence braced a hand on his shoulder. “You go when you are ready, Mike.”
We stood and watched the camera as Caleb and Shelley tried many different strategies to get him to spill. They utilized good cop, bad cop. They tried intimidation and violence. They even left him alone hoping he might mumble to himself.
Dr. Rinwald looked straight into the camera and said, “You are wasting my time, Michael.”
Mike bristled. “How dare he walk into our club, vandalize it and demand to see me! Who does he think he is? God?”
“That is a good question.” Jessie walked over to the monitor. “Look at his face. He isn’t scared or even angry. It is as if he is humoring a bad-tempered child.”
Clarence walked over to where Jessie was standing, and I couldn’t help but notice that she leaned into him as he stood there. I knew that they pretended to hate each other, but there was a chemistry between them that nobody could deny.
“She is right,” Clarence muttered. “The jackass is as cool as a cucumber. I don’t know his game, but I don’t trust it. How likely is it that Rinwald is working alone?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Not very.”
A feeling of foreboding entered the room.
Clarence pulled his cell phone out and dialed. “We have a situation,” he said, his eyes not leaving the monitor. “Tell the Queen it is time to engage.”
“What?” I asked. “Whom are you talking to?”
Clarence turned around to face me, but he was still speaking on the phone.
“Safe,” he replied. “For the moment. But the area has been breached, and we have reason to believe there may be other intruders.”
James slipped into the room. “The fire department showed up, and it took me a while to convince them that searching the building was unnecessary. What did I miss?”
I couldn’t speak. My heart was pounding. Could the Queen be my mother? Until now, the idea seemed more abstract and less likely to be true, but it appeared that Clarence and perhaps everyone else believed it.
James immediately walked over and wrapped me in his arms.
“We will get to the bottom of this,” James whispered in my ear. I instinctively leaned on him, soaking in his strength and conviction.
Mike grabbed April and kissed her hard and fast. She stumbled when he let her go, the door smacking the wall as he left.
Clarence was still on the phone. “I don’t want to move them until we know that it is safe. How soon can you have an extraction team here?”
James’s arms tightened around me.
“He is speaking to someone who works with the Queen,” I mumbled low enough for James to hear. “What if I am not who they think I am? What if they have it all wrong?”
James swallowed before answering. “El, even if you don’t share one ounce of DNA with Queen Veronica, we still escaped GMU. No wolf has ever done that before. We were held captive since birth by mercenaries that were training us as assassins. I am pretty confident that the Queen will want to know what we have to say regardless of who you might be related to.”
My eyes searched his. “Do you believe that? Or are you trying to reassure me?”
A light flush stained his cheeks.
“You two could not be any cuter if you tried,” Jessie said out of the blue. “And they say faeries are the adorable ones.”
We laughed and some of the heightened tension faded.
Clarence put the phone down as the door to the room where Caleb and Shelley were questioning Dr. Rinwald flew open.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Mike stormed right up to Dr. Rinwald, practically spitting in his face. “Why are you not in prison? How did you escape? Does mom know? Why shouldn’t we kill you?”
A slow smile crept across Rinwald’s face. “Michael, is that any way to talk to your dear old dad? Come now, surely you didn’t expect me to stay locked up forever.”
Mike narrowed his eyes before punching the older man square in the jaw. “Answer the questions!”
Rinwald’s smile didn’t falter although some of his teeth were bloody and a large bruise was forming.
“What makes you think you can play God, Rinwald?”
The older man snorted. “I can’t help who I am. Listen, it’s not too late for you, Michael. You could be a hero in the war that’s coming. You know that I have dedicated my life to the furtherment of the Lycan race.”
“At what cost?” Mike shook his head. “You think that life is like your mythology. I am not a hero, and there is no war coming. Shit, how many have fallen in your great quest? When is enough enough?”
Rinwald shrugged callously. “There are always casualties on the way to winning the war.”
“You are not fighting a war!” Mike pulled at his hair in frustration. “Fuck, do you even recognize right from wrong anymore?”
“Mortals haven’t the slightest clue about the bigger picture. Those that have given their lives for the USLUF are heroes,” Rinwald spouted loftily.
“Given? That is a choice word there because from where I am standing, they didn’t give a damn thing. You took that choice from them. You took their lives, their futures, their children, their destiny and threw it all away. Tell me, was it worth it?”
Chapter 23
James
It seemed the angrier that Mike got, the more Rinwald’s eyes filled with sadistic glee. It was oddly fascinating to watch.
My stomach twisted as I watched one of the men who had imprisoned us all those years speak about life and the taking of it as commonplace. We were all expendable to him. A part of me that I usually kept hidden deep down inside began to kindle and burn.
I knew that I had darkness inside of me. Ella had reassured me time and again that it wasn’t true. But I knew it was, and I think she did too.
There were so many different things that they had done to alter our minds, our bodies, our DNA. At times I even felt our souls were affected, too.
I could feel something foreign creeping inside of me. I wanted to suppress it. I didn’t want to be evil. But the more that we sat there listening to the bile pour from his lips, the greater the darkness grew until I felt like I could hardly breathe.
The electricity shorted for the briefest of moments and the monitors started clicking on and off.
“James?” I could feel Ella’s hand on my arm, but I was too far gone.
A light bulb broke and another.
My hands were clenched to my sides, and as much as Ella tried to access me through our mind link, I refused to listen to her.
“What is going on with him?”
Her tortured cry raked at my nerves. I couldn’t stand the fear I heard in her voice. I needed to protect her. Ella was mine and mine alone. Clarence tried to speak to me, and I shoved him away. He slammed into the wall leaving a huge dent. His eyes grew wide with confusion and terror.
Protect.
Clarence shouldn’t be afraid. Ella shouldn’t be frightened.
I needed to fix this. The darkness would fix this.
I heard screaming and crying. But black covered my eyes, and I couldn’t see what was happening.
I felt something crash against my head, and I flung it away. There were more grunts of pain.
Protect.
I had to do something.
My body was moving, but I didn’t know where. My mind seemed to be overtaken by the darkness.
I could hear Rinwald’s voice, but it wasn’t from a monitor any longer. It was loud and brash and coming from somewhere in front of me.
“I knew it!” Rinwald was triumphant. “He is a killing machine. There is nothing that you can do to stop him.”
A killing machine? Here at Club Lycan? I had to protect my friends. I couldn’t let them die. I had to defend Ella. She was my mate, my life, my world.
Hysterical laughter filled the room, ringing in my ears.
“You will all die, everyone will die!”
The blackness seeped into every pore of my body. I could no longer hear what was going on. I felt my hands tighten, destroy and rip apart, but I didn’t know what they were doing.
I was scared. I wanted to know if Ella was safe, but I no longer had control of any aspect of my body.
The time spent in the dark felt like an eternity. It was almost like stepping into an alternate reality or dying and leaving my body behind. I didn’t even know where I was.
My stomach roiled, and I knew I was going to be sick. Vomit jolted from my stomach, racing up my throat and flew from my mouth. The muscles in my neck strained from the violent heaves and I bent over and eventually hit the floor. Blackness enshrouded me, and I faded into unconsciousness.
When I came to, my head felt as though a freight train had driven over it a dozen times. I tried to clutch it and realized my hands were tied down. I jerked my lower body and found the same for my legs.
My vision was hazy, and I blinked several times before I was able to see. Clarence and Mike stood on the other side of the room eying me warily.
“What the fuck is this?” I demanded to know.
“Who are you?” Clarence demanded.
“Is this a joke?” I yanked at the ropes coated with wolfsbane that were cutting into my skin. “Where is Ella? Is she safe?”
That seemed to relax them physically.
“You know who Ella is?” Mike asked cautiously.
“Yeah, Mike, she’s my fucking mate and the only one who should ever be tying me up. Now, what in the hell is going on?”
“You went a little crazy,” Clarence said carefully.
“What do you mean?” My tone was even, but my heart rate skyrocketed.
Mike ran a hand through his hair. “I was questioning my stepdad when you tore the door off its hinges and ripped him apart.”
I tried to remember but couldn’t. “What do you mean, ripped him apart?”
Clarence looked ill. “I have never seen anything like it. I thought you were going to kill us all.”
The breath caught in my throat. “What?”
Mike nodded. “That was some scary shit, man. But not nearly as scary as Rinwald reforming and escaping.”
The darkness.
I remembered that it had started to grow.
“Where is Ella?”
They looked at each other.
“Where the fuck is Ella?”
Mike sighed. “She is sleeping. This was something that we had never dealt with before. You have to understand—we didn’t know what to do.”
I didn’t understand what they were talking about. “I want to see her. I want you to untie me immediately!”
“Can’t do that,” Clarence’s deep voice rumbled. “We are under the Queen's orders to restrain you until she arrives.”
“Bring Ella in here to sleep, then.”
They looked at each other again.
I had awoken in the middle of a nightmare.
“Bring her in here!” I yelled, yanking against the ropes until they cut into my skin and blood ran down my arms and feet.
“James, you have to calm down. We don’t want to have to administer another sedative.”
“You gave me drugs?” I asked harshly.
Never in a million years would I have thought that Mike and Clarence would drug me.
Fuck.
“Did you drug Ella too?”
They looked away.
I thrashed, trying to break free from the bonds.
“Stop,” Mike insisted. “You are going to rip your hands off!”
“Why?” I cried out. “We trusted you!”
Clarence moved forward to the foot of my bed.
“You were going to kill everyone here, James. Suddenly, you stopped and started vomiting. You threw-up until it was only blood coming up. We sedated you to save your life.”
“Sure,” I mocked. “Why did you drug Ella? What did she do to deserve this?”
“She was inconsolable,” Mike finally whispered. “You were out for two days, and she wouldn’t sleep, eat, or move. I didn’t know if it was safe for her to be near you.”
Didn't he know that Ella was always safe to be near me? I would never hurt Ella.
I wanted to tell them, make them understand, when I remembered that I had no memory of what happened after the darkness took over.
Could I have hurt her in those circumstances? What had I done? What kind of monster was I?
Chapter 24
Ella
The extraction team was there when I awoke. I glanced at the pillow next to me and hated that it didn’t hold James’s imprint or better yet, James.
I showered and dressed quickly and left my room. But instead of opening the door to an empty hallway, I found two armed Lycans.
They allowed me to pass but bowed in a genuinely bizarre manner.
No one should be bowing to me—ever.
“Right,” I mumbled, tucking my hair behind my ear, “I will be off.”
“The Queen wishes an audience with you,” one of the wolves stated. He spoke with an accent. His dark eyes and black hair never left my face.
“The Queen is here?” I choked.
He nodded. “Yes, your majesty.”
“I beg your pardon?”
The other guard was a tall woman with short black curls and skin as dark as ebony. Her features could have been carved from glass as sharp as they were.
“Princess Ella, we have instructions to escort you to Queen Veronica.” Her husky tone was as smooth as honey.
“I am not a princess.” It was the first thing that I could think of to say. I was stunned.
“Please, Princess.” The other guard bowed again. “My name is Aamod, and we are your guards. This is Naida. We have come from the palace.”
“I need to see James.” I felt cold and scared. “Where is he?”
Aamod wrinkled his brow. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
Fire began to lick my insides. “I need to see my mate. I won’t see the Queen without him.”
Aamod went to argue again, and Naida shook her head.
“A mate is essential. We will accompany you to where James is being held.”
“Being held?”
“What do you remember about the attack?” Naida asked curiously.
I racked my brain but couldn’t remember anything.
“James and I were waiting in the monitoring room with Clarence and Jessie,” I began slowly, piecing the bits together that seemed fragmented and distant in my mind. “Shelley and Caleb were questioning Dr. Rinwald in one of the chambers.” There was a blank space in my mind. “I don’t know what happened after that.”
They looked at each other, and I knew it wasn’t good.
“James attacked Rinwald before we could get anything out of him.”
“Can’t they wait for him to heal and question him?” I asked.
Naida paused, “No, Princess. Rinwald escaped.”
I felt woozy. “James doesn’t even like fighting that much. He is the smart one. I don’t understand.”
“We don’t either.” I looked up to see Clarence speaking to me from the doorway. “I am glad that you are awake, Ella. We have much to discuss.”
“We are to take the Princess to the Queen,” Aamod insisted.
